Will Bruno do for Austria what Borat did for Kazakstan? Austrians get redy as Bruno premiers in London and Paris!

Bruno has now premiered in london and Paris. pictures from the runway can be seen here.

The Kazakh authorities were not too happy when Borat hit the big screen, however, once tourism to Kazakhstan was boosted they didn’t seem to care all that much – but will Bruno do for Austria what Borat did for Kazakhstan?

Some Austrians are concerned that Bruno will not portray Austria in a good light, but others are relishing the prospect of Bruno-fuelled outrage.

But will they laugh as hard at Bruno? Ish dont fink so! A recent article on the ORF website said Bruno doesn’t necessarily shed the best light on Austria”.

It may partly be out of concern for Austria’s image, already battered by the trial earlier this year of Josef Fritzl, who imprisoned his daughter and their children in a cellar.

Lisa Trompisch, a columnist on heute.at, was incensed by a recent interview with Bruno in the fashion magazine Marie Claire, in which he described Hitler as this country’s “black sheep”. “Ve’re all proud of our country und are raised to try and achieve ze Austrian dream – find a job, get a dungeon und raise a family in it,” Bruno went on.

But other Austrians seem to be secretly relishing the prospect of Bruno-fuelled outrage. There’s been speculation in the British and the Austrian papers that Bruno is based on a real person, Alfons Haider, one of Austria’s most well-known television presenters.

But Mr Haider, who hosts the Austrian version of Strictly Come Dancing, told me that there were only two similarities between him and Bruno: “I’m Austrian and I’m openly gay.”

Mr Haider thinks that the Austrian sense of humour may be severely challenged by Bruno and his ambition to be the “most famous Austrian star since Hitler”.

“The gay stuff is probably OK but the Nazi stuff – I’m not sure that people would like that,” he said. “I personally don’t like it that my country is always shown as a fascist, right-wing Nazi country. We have problems with the right wing as all European countries do, but it is not as bad as they show. This is a democracy.”